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Slovenia is a small country bordering Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia. But is also has a very small coastline, enough to have a prosperous port and access to the see. The country has over 2 million of inhabitants only but they seems to be very dogminded. The Cynoligical Association of Slovenia, the Slovenian Kennel Club, has no less than 12.000 members and 119 clubs. It is not a very young club, established in 1921 during the time it belonged to the greater Kingdom of Yugoslavia and was directed by dr.Ivan Lovrencic who was even the FCI president during and after the second World War. For the 90th anniversary of the club they were honored to organize the very successful European Dog Show in 2011 in Celje. Slovenia has 5 CAC Shows and 9 CACIB shows every year of which 4 are double shows.. The current president of the CAS is mag.Blaz Kavcic who leads an enthusiastic team of 6 people working in the office, situated in a small village in the country nearby Ljubliana.

It is not the first time that I visited Slovenia. It has Alpine mountain areas, nice cities, but this time I had the opportunity to see the opposite part of Slovenia where it is supposed to be sunny and warm, close to the Adriatic see, in Koper where the Mediterranean Winner was held this year. Unfortunately the weather spoiled my expectations on a sunny weekend. It was not promising at all and when I found out that, contrary to the Belgian shows, this one was happening in open air, I was really wondering how the show would survive it.

On arrival It was still dry. The area for the show was on a large sports-complex with several asphalted basketball courts surrounded by lots of tents. It looked like everyone was well prepared. At the end of the field was a big tent were the main ring was held. This tent was as large and even larger as many main rings. On Saturday it rained from time to time with drizzle in between. The dogs could be kept relatively dry but on Sunday it was different. In the morning it rained a lot and it was decided that 4 rings were replaced to the big tent for the main ring. That were the rings were most longhaired and toy breeds were to be judged. And so everything went well with hardly any complaints. I was surprised as most of the people here were from sunny countries.

At the main entrance of the field the dogs were checked by a vet and were shown the way to one of the two secretariat tents, one for the paid entries and the other for the unpaid. Many people were queuing at the last one and I asked for explanation. I was told that people were allowed to pay at the start of the show and this without any penalty. Very generous, but last year I was told it had been very bad weather and this year was not very promising either. So you can decide to come or not in the very last moment and pay on the spot? No no, I was told, next time you would come to show in Slovenia, you will need to pay for it. If you don’t want to do that, you’ll never be able to show in Slovenia any more. Of course it is the policy of the Slovenian Kennel Club to be very customer-friendly, but this directly affects the finances of a club that has made its basic expenses to welcome you, especially if something happens like bad weather in winter or something.

I was impressed by the professionalism of the organization. Not many shows have a catalog that is so complete as this one. It comes in Slovenian and English. Funny is that the CACIB show that was held on Saturday had slightly more entries than the Mediterranean Winner itself, 861 to 841. Dogs from no less than 23 different countries were here in competition. The major part, 400 dogs, came from Italy that is only a few kilometers away from Koper. Slovenia itself had 144 entries, Croatia 45 and Austria 38. But there were entries also from much further away. The United Kingdom had 2 dogs there, and Ukraine, Japan, India and the United States had one each entered. The total entry number was maybe not that big compared to other countries but it was a very international show.

15 Judges were invited, 2 did judge on Saturday only and 3 on Sunday only, the rest changed breeds on Sunday. They all had good numbers to judge every day, except for those judges who judged one day only. They were all Slovenian judges and not allrounders and as not many breeds had high entries it is quite logical that they cannot have high numbers. On Saturday Argentinian judge Mr. Carlos Saevick judged BIS. Notwithstanding there were not that much dogs entered, the quality of the BOB’s in the main ring was high to very high. His 3rd BIS was the Dandie Dinmont Terrier “German Dandies’ Rosanna, a Croatian entry from Ferkovic Zivkovic Sanja. This bitch is two years old and was judged by Mrs.Malgorzata Supronowicz from Poland in the ring as well as for the group. ResBIS went to the Amerian Akita “Redwitch Pushing Buttons” , another bitch from Croatia, who won also Res Best Junior In Show as she is just little over one year of age. Redwitch is owned by Nekic Marin and was a choice of Mr.Marija Kavcic from Slovenia who also judged the group later in the main ring. The BIS winner of the Koper CAC went to the Maltese “Cinecitta’Diane Lane”. Mr.Stefan Sinko was the judge of this 3 year old bitch from Italy, owned by Prosperi Franco. And again it was the same judge who chose her to win the group.

On Sunday it was Mr.Sinko’s term to judge Best In Show. His 3rd place went to Redwitch, the American Akita bitch from Saturday. Redwitch had a big boost to her young career this weekend, as earlier on Sunday she won this time Best Junior In Show from Judge Leos Jancick from the Czech Republic. Mr.Saevich judged the breed and the group. “Heavensway Forever After With Afterglow” got ResBIS. Entered in Champions Class he got his ticket from Mrs.Marija Kavcic as well as the Group Cup. Heavensway is 2 years old and owned by Prasanth Rao from India. “Magic Sunrise Great Gentleman” came from as far as Latvia, but not for nothing as he went home with the Mediterranean Cup. This Papillion Nain Continental travels a lot with his master and is a regular winner in Europe. He was entered in Champion Class and judged by Mr.Sinko himself. Mrs. Malgorza judged the group.

Notwithstanding the rain it was a warm show in friendly atmosphere, relax and finishing well in time. Everything went so smoothly with no incidents, no hesitations or any major problems and that proves my statement that running a show in a professional way has no longer secrets for the Slovenian Kennel Club. They want to go for the World Show in 2019 and I am very confident that they can handle it with ease.